CREATURE COMFORTS
Wildlife West gives a home to NM’s rescued native animals
Wildlife West Nature Park, which houses New Mexico’s native critters in need of a helping hand, has reopened to the public.
The park temporarily closed for about three months to adhere to pandemic regulations. The nonprofit organization is now open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. The park took a financial hit while closed. Gate income helps pay for food and veterinarian bills for vaccinations and health checks. The animals also noticed a change and missed interacting with visitors.
“We rescue native wildlife that are non-releasable,” said Roger Alink, founder and director of Wildlife West Nature Park. “These are injured, orphaned, illegal pets that the game warden or the authorities confiscate or the rehab centers get to rehab them and they’re non-releasable.”
There are plenty of animals to learn about and visit including young grey foxes, a 500-pound black bear, curious cougars, elk, bobcats, crested caracaras and more. The newest arrival is a skunk named Violet that was confiscated from a local movie set.
“They brought in several (animals),” Alink said of the movie production. “They were socialized and used in the movies. They came in without permits and that didn’t turn out very well for them. And then the animals got distributed to different zoos and places, and we adopted the skunk.”
The colorful caracaras also know a little something about being brought into New Mexico without a permit and now reside at Wildlife West.
“Caracaras are amazing little birds,” Alink explained. “They are found in southeastern New Mexico down towards Texas, mostly in Texas, and then they go all the way into Mexico… They were actually brought into the state without a permit and they were confiscated.”
Plenty of feline fun can be found in the cougar and bobcat habitats. Cougars Zia and True can be seen six months out of the year on their own webcam sponsored by New Mexico True, which named the felines, according to Alink.
“They were found in Northern
New Mexico and one of the females had her leg caught in a leg hole trap and her little sister was hanging around and their mother was gone,” he explained. “Her leg was snapped in a leg hole trap so they got the cougar out of the trap, took it to a rescue center and they helped her leg.”
The injured cougar’s leg is doing well and the siblings are enjoying their large space. A local Lions Club has taken a special interest in the siblings.
“They donated money so we built a ginormous cat tree,” Alink said. “They get to climb up on there and lay in their little domain. They can be above and see everything around them because cats love to be up on things.”
Some other whiskered creatures at the park are two bobcats including one raised in a house and too domesticated to be released in the wild. The two bobcats have separate habitats where they can frolic.
“There’s a two-sided habitat where the younger one named Bob is more active and has a huge juniper tree in the habitat,” Alink said. “And so he jumps all over the tree. The other one is a little older and less active and has a little bit more contained area.”
Being mischievous may have paid off for big black bear Koshari. He was found at Navajo Lake as a younger bear getting on pontoon boats and stealing people’s food.
Each time the bear would be relocated it was a matter of days before he returned.
Koshari, who was scrawny and emaciated, was nursed back to good health by a veterinarian in Española. He was later adopted by Wildlife West and has calmed with age.
Koshari now receives a diet of fish, meat, vegetables and fruit as well as walnuts, almonds and more.
The produce is donated by local grocery stores.
“He’s probably 15 years old by now and so he’s middle age,” Alink said. “He’s quite large so he doesn’t really do too much. He hangs around quite a bit. In the winter he doesn’t really hibernate but he does slow down not eating as much. But in the summer he’s pretty active and eats a lot of food, 20,000 calories a day.”
Four foxes have been a popular attraction since they first arrived a couple years ago. The foxes were found as kits without their mother at a construction site.
“They’re so cute,” Alink said. “They love climbing trees. In their habitat they have a couple juniper trees that they hang out in the branches quite a bit.”
The animals are cared for by volunteer caregivers who have experience in veterinarian care or who love wildlife.
“They are amazing in how dedicated they are,” Alink said. “We could not hire better help because they are passionate caretakers and they spend hours and hours with them. Because it matters to them because their life is in an unfortunate situation because they got rescued and they’re not wild so we give them the enrichment and entertainment and life quality by giving them a lot of attention and love.”